- Conference
- 2010 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 11 December 2009
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that in the current financial climate many NHS organisations are not taking into account the valuable role therapy services play in delivering efficient, cost-effective and patient-centred services.
Many NHS organisations need to make significant financial savings, causing them to cut therapy services and freeze vacant posts. This short-sighted approach fails to recognise the potential for therapy services to deliver economical and effective care, preventing unnecessary hospital admissions, promoting early recovery, reducing hospitals stays and avoiding procedures being needlessly duplicated by different agencies.
In particular, Conference recognises the threats to occupational therapy services and raises concern that cuts to these services will jeopardise vital assessment and treatment which is focussed on promoting health, preventing injury or disability and enabling service users to contribute to the wider community.
The short-term local financial gains made from cuts to therapy services are a false economy and are creating huge potential problems for the future.
Conference therefore calls on the Health Service Group Executive to champion the valuable role of therapy interventions within UNISON’s campaigning work and to continue to support activists fighting to maintain these vital services.